Australians defy Gallipoli warnings

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Turkish war veterans and Australian soldiers and sailors wave at the site of Turkish memorial on the Gallipoli peninsula.Picture:Reuters

Thousands of mostly young Australians were last night planning to defy Federal Government terrorist warnings and an unprecedented security crackdown to take part in the Gallipoli memorial services in Turkey.

More than 2000 Turkish military and paramilitary troops launched a massive search and surveillance operation at Anzac Cove yesterday afternoon to protect visitors from an unspecified terrorist threat to the 89th commemoration of the Gallipoli landings in 1915. Turkish special forces were believed to be patrolling the area around Anzac Cove as early as Friday afternoon.

Authorities conceded that the Government warnings against travelling to Turkey may have inspired a show of defiance by an estimated 6000-to-8000 Australian visitors expected at the dawn service at Anzac Cove attended by Defence Minister Robert Hill and other Australian dignitaries.

An Australian official, who declined to be named, told The Sunday Age that it was understandable that many Australians were "sick of being told what not to do".

Tour operators said the warning appeared to have made little difference to their bookings.

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The Turkish military sealed off the area around Anzac Cove yesterday afternoon and searched every visitor.

The airspace above the Gallipoli Peninsula was declared a flight-exclusion zone and Turkish customs officials patrolled the waters around the cove and nearby areas.

Australians living in Britain, the home base of many Anzac pilgrims, said they had heard virtually nothing about the travel warning and those that had said it had come too late to change their plans.

The unprecedented security operation included confiscating alcohol from Australian and New Zealand backpackers who have traditionally slept out overnight at the Anzac Cove site in readiness for the dawn service.

A booze ban has been in force for several years, but this year it had been strictly enforced by individual searches.

The Anzac services two years ago, attended by an estimated 15,000 people, were marred by scenes of rowdy, drunken behaviour by a minority of Australians.

The director of the Office of Australian War Graves, Gary Beck, said that by banning alcohol he hoped that visitors might show "a little bit more respect".

"If they can't survive a night without a drink there's something wrong," he said.

Mr Beck, whose office organises the annual event in Turkey, acknowledged the travel warning might have encouraged Australians to visit Anzac as a "bit of defiance". But he backed the Government's actions because they were inspired by concern for the Australian public. "The Government has done the right thing," he said.

Despite the air-sea shutdown, a group of 41 Australian sailors, lead by noted Sydney yachtsman Teki Dalton, was expected to arrive at Anzac Cove late yesterday in six hired boats.

Visitors were greeted by armed Turkish military, roadblocks and patrolled fenced gates - and were expected to be searched for a second time as they moved from the dawn service to Lone Pine, a mid-morning event considered the most moving tribute to the 8709 Australians who died at Gallipoli.

Tour group operator Graham Docksey said it was difficult to estimate the impact of the warning and increased security, but it had not caused any cancellations with his company.

Another guide, who declined to be named, said that it had "come too late; people had already paid".

A spokeswoman for Senator Hill said the minister accepted that Australians could make up their own minds whether to act on the Government's advice. "Obviously the travel warning is there for a reason," she said.